1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-line butt connector that receives a pair of wires, one on each end of the connector, wherein the wires are of a different gauge and crimped thereat and wherein each end of the butt connector is of a different size in order to accommodate the disparate sized wires.
2. Background of the Prior Art
In-line butt connectors are designed to receive a pair of wires in an end to end relationship and to mechanically and electrically connect these wires. The butt connector receives a wire at each end of the connector and thereafter the butt connector is crimped in order to secure each wire and facilitate the mechanical and electrical connection of the wires. In addition, some butt connectors may have solder and/or a heat shrinkable sleeve to further aid in wire connection and to protect the connection from exposure to the elements. Generally, but not always, each of the wires received within the butt connector are of the same gauge. However, sometimes it is necessary to splice a pair of wires wherein one of the wires is of a different gauge than the other, or similarly, to connect three wires together, all possibly of the same gauge, with two wires being received within one end of the butt connector and the third wire being received within the opposite end of the butt connector.
One method employed to facilitate such disparate wiring being received within opposing ends of a butt connector is to provide a butt connector that is sized for the larger diameter wire (or for the two wires). The larger wire (smaller gauge) is received snugly within its end of the butt connector and the smaller wire (larger gauge) is received within the other end and the two ends are crimped appropriately. The problem with this system is that while the end that receives the smaller gauged wire produces a proper crimp, the end that receives the larger gauged wire does not always produce a satisfactory crimp. The larger gauged wire, by being received within an oversized channel of a butt connector due to the fact that the butt connector is sized for the smaller gauged wire, has substantial play within its end of the butt connector. The crimping process may not adequately impact onto this smaller gauged wire resulting in a less than ideal electrical connection and a mechanical connection that is more prone to fail as this smaller wire may have a higher tendency to come loose from its crimped butt connector.
In order to address the above problem, butt connectors have been proposed wherein the inside diameters of each end are different in order to accommodate different sized wires. A smaller gauged wire is received within an end of the butt connector that is relatively larger while a larger gauged wife is received within an end of the butt connector that is relatively smaller. In this way, each wire is within an end of the butt connector that is appropriately sized for the gauge of the wire. However, the problem with this system lies in the fact that in such butt connectors the outside diameter of the butt connector is constant. Accordingly, in the end of the butt connector that receives the smaller gauged wire, the wall of the butt connector at this end is relatively thin (relatively large inside diameter), while at the opposing end, wherein the larger gauged wire is received, the wall of the butt connector is relatively thick (relatively small inside diameter). Due to the disparate wall thicknesses of the opposing ends of the butt connector, it is incumbent upon the technician using the butt connector to apply appropriate and different crimp pressures at each end of the butt connector—a relatively higher pressure on the thick walled end of the butt connector and a relatively smaller pressure on the thin walled end of the butt connector. However, in reality, such is not the case and the crimper tool is not reset between crimps between one end and the other. As such, either insufficient crimp pressure is applied at the thick walled end of the butt connector due to the crimping tool being set to crimp at a pressure at the thin walled end of the butt connector, or too much crimp pressure is applied at the thin walled end of the butt connector due to the crimping tool being set at a pressure to crimp at the thin walled end. In either case, the result is a crimp that is less than satisfactory.
What is needed is a butt connector that can receive a pair of wires in-line (or a trio of wires with two at one end and one at the other) wherein the wires are of different gauges and wherein each end of the butt connector is sized to appropriately receive the disparate sized wires and to be able to crimp upon the wire with a normal setting of the crimping tool.